With the death, aged 84, of baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne, on 30 November 2007, the jazz world lost one of its most respected and creative players and composers. The baritone saxophone is now widely considered to be amongst the most expressive instruments in the jazz arsenal, due in no small part to Payne who, when he was alive, was never really given enough credit (other than by his fellow musicians) for his part in placing that most cumbersome member of the saxophone family into the solo limelight.

As with many another budding reed player, the biggest influence on Brooklyn born Payne was the Count Basie tenor player Lester Young, whose softly swinging laid back style was at the heart of Payne's own alto sax playing in the years immediately after World War Two. But it wasn't until the early 1950s that Payne transferred to the baritone sax, an instrument that had been the preserve of the award-winning Duke Ellington sideman, Harry Carney, whose sound was at the very core of the Ellington band.

Cecil McKenzie Payne was born in Brooklyn on December 14 1922, growing up with such future jazz legends as pianists Randy Weston and Duke Jordan (who played with Payne in the 1950s and 1960s), and the legendary drummer Max Roach, whose family had moved to Brooklyn in 1928. At the age of 13, after hearing Lester Young on the radio, Payne persuaded his father to buy him an alto saxophone. From then on the teenage Payne went to virtually every Lester Young and Count Basie gig he could get to, memorising, and then practising, Young's solos when he returned home, which no doubt endeared him to his neighbours. When Max Roach (who died in August 2007) formed his first band in the early 1940s his Brooklyn High School friend Cecil Payne was, naturally enough, his first choice for the saxophone chair. After serving in the American army during World War Two - where he played clarinet with the 291st AGF Band - Payne was soon hooked by the new sound and freedom of be-bop.

After demobilisation he returned to the family home, where, in the company of Roach, he spent as much time as he could listening to Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the clubs on 52nd Street. His natural playing ability soon came to the attention of trombonist J.J. Johnson, who, in 1946, hired him for a recording session with his quintet. By the 1950s instrumentalists, thanks to be-bop, were able to experiment with different sounds and chord sequences, of which the baritone saxophone, with its wide ranging tone and timbre, was ideally suited. And although Gerry Mulligan made a great deal of popular head way - and a huge reputation - with his Hollywood based bands (that often featured trumpeter Chet Baker) Payne followed a rather different, grittier Brooklyn orientated sound that was as fluent as Mulligan's, but faster, and with a darker, almost film noire feel, that Mulligan's airy, sunny, West Coast sound didn't have.By the 1960s Cecil Payne was not only one of the most in -demand session musicians in and around New York, but also a rising composer who was asked to write the score for Jack Gelber's play 'The Connection', which became a very successful off-Broadway production about drug addiction in 1960s New York. The success of that superb score, which has probably outstripped the success of the play over the years, was recorded in 1962 but has, as far as I can make out, never been released as a CD, although copies of the original LP are available on the net.

That recording's sister album, 'Cecil Payne Performing Charlie Parker Music' (recorded in 1963) has been available as a CD since 1997, and is a must for anyone who wants to hear Payne at his best. The album also features the playing of Clark Terry (trumpet), Duke Jordan (piano), Ron Carter (bass), and Charlie Persip on drums, which is the same line-up as 'The Connection', with the exception of Bennie Green on trombone.The CD is available from 'Collectables' over at www.oldies.com. There can be little doubt that Payne's beautiful tone and ability to play fluently in both the high and low registers was a major influence on many jazz saxophonists, not least the British baritone players Ronnie Ross, and perhaps more influentially, that other English jazz saxophonist, John Surman, whose innovative work from the late 1960s onwards influenced virtually every jazz reed player. Listen to John - especially his work with the Mike Westbrook Concert band – and you will hear Cecil Payne's clear tones and effortless range. From the 1960s until his death in Camden, New Jersey, Cecil Payne was seldom out of the recording studio ( his list of recordings is impressive), or on tour in either the US or Europe, or fronting various bands that played concerts and society gigs throughout the New York and New England area. He was a true professional to the end.

© 2009 Steve Newman